The announcement by the Freedom Partners, the network of political fundraising groups supported by Charles and David Koch, that they would commit to spending $889 million in the 2016 election cycle was greeted with public dismay and private joy by Democrats. The Koch brothers’ efforts will be centered on statewide and national issue advocacy in 2016 and will likely rival the amounts spent by either major party. That opens the two libertarian siblings and their friends to charges that they are buying an election if not the presidency itself. Considering that the Kochs have been treated as public enemies by Democrats for the past few years, their spending plans will fit neatly into liberal talking points about campaign finance reform as well as the GOP being the party of the rich. But while there’s no denying that $889 million is a lot of money, the notion that such an amount can buy the presidency is absurd. So, too, is the implicit assumption that they and those who agree with them are the only ones spending megabucks on political advocacy. Even more to the point is the fact that the efforts of the left’s bulwark—the mainstream media—is left out of the discussion about campaign finance altogether.

Let’s concede that what the Kochs and their allies are doing gives them a very loud say in the political debate. But the notion that even $900 million in expenditures buys the White House is a joke. After all, both presidential candidates exceeded that amount in 2012 with Barack Obama’s reelection effort setting new records for fundraising. Though Democrats have blasted the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision as a blow to democracy, both liberals and conservatives have benefited from it.

That’s because it has allowed more political advocacy from all sorts of people and groups. For every Sheldon Adelson or Koch brother there’s a liberal billionaire like Tom Steyer or George Soros putting up equal or greater amounts to put forward their ideas.

Indeed, as I noted last year, the OpenSecrets.org site run by the left-wing Center for Responsive Politics compiled a list of the largest political donors in the period stretching from 1988 to 2014. It revealed that most of the biggest givers were in fact inclined to support Democrats and left-wing causes. Twelve of the top 16 names on the list were unions while the other four were business groups that gave to both parties. Koch Industries ranked a paltry 59th on that list. When all the contributions for the 2016 election cycle are added together, the Kochs and the other conservatives and libertarians who have joined forces with them may rank higher but you can count on unions and other left wing donors and groups shoveling just as much money at their favorites.

Moreover, the focus on the Kochs, who have been smeared by gutter politicians like Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid as “anti-American” for having the temerity to try and speak up for their belief in economic freedom, is especially hypocritical since the premise of these attacks is the notion that their political speech is somehow illegitimate. The reason why Citizens United is so opposed by Democrats and their mainstream media allies is that a system where political speech is limited by arcane campaign-finance laws is one where the liberal press and broadcast media—whose right to both editorialize and slant the news is protected by the First Amendment—are elevated and where conservatives voices are marginalized. Though this imbalance has been rectified somewhat by Fox News and talk radio, there’s little question that without Citizens United, the liberal establishment much preferred a situation where outside groups were effectively silenced, thereby tilting the political playing field in their direction.

Rather than seeking to shut up the Kochs, Sheldon Adelson, or, for that matter, Steyer or Soros, liberals should be welcoming a free market of ideas. They should also remember that though money gives a candidate a voice and a leg up, it couldn’t buy any election. Instead of seeking to restrict political speech, both parties should be welcoming more of it. The Kochs will have their say. So will liberals. In the end, the voters will decide and choose the arguments and the candidates they like best, whether or not the Kochs, Harry Reid, or the mainstream media likes the outcome. That’s called democracy. Critics of Citizens United and the Kochs should remember that shutting people up is called something else.